Celebrating Our Commitment to the Brit Olam at Biennial

Celebrating Our Commitment to the Brit Olam at Biennial

The 2017 URJ Biennial was, in many ways, a profound moment of unity and rededication for our Reform Movement. One of the major themes of this Biennial was a reaffirmation of our Movement's commitment to congregation-based social justice work, a thread that ran through the plenaries, Tikkun Olam learning sessions, and even in hallway conversations among congregational leaders who engage their communities in this sacred work. This commitment was catalyzed by our Movement-wide Brit Olam, a covenant with our world, launched nearly eight months ago at the Religious Action Center's Consultation on Conscience.

At the Consultation, we publicly announced our goal of reaching 100 Brit Olam congregations by the Biennial, and when we arrived in Boston, we had already surpassed this benchmark with 140 and counting. Congregations across our Movement have excitedly and intentionally brought the Brit Olam to their communities to re-commit to deep and meaningful engagement in social justice work, and to join our network of Reform congregations working together to bring about change in our world.

Moving forward, we will continue to grow our Brit Olam network and hope to inspire even more congregations to join this call to act together as a Movement. As we carry out a vision of strengthening our congregations' social justice work through ongoing training, resources, and network building, we will continue to inspire our congregations into action through the Urgency of Now campaigns and beyond.

If your congregation is ready to join this call to action, there are resources available to help you bring the Brit Olam to your congregation’s leadership. To all of our current and future Brit Olam congregations, thank you for hearing this call and standing up to work together as a Movement to achieve our collective vision of the world we want, where all people experience justice, wholeness, and compassion.

Isabel P. "Liz" Dunst is the Chair of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, a joint body of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism.